Leica LP C (Laser Printer for Cassettes) System Requirement & Specifications LP C Req. & Spec. Page 1 of 9 Version 1.1
Copyright 2010 Leica Microsystems All rights reserved All company names, product names, brands, and descriptions are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. This document may not be copied in whole or in part or reproduced in any other media without the express written permission of Leica Microsystems. Please note that under copyright law, copying includes translation into another language. The information in this document is provided "asis" and does not constitute a guarantee of performance. Information in this document is subject to change without prior written notice. Scope This document contains basic information on the requirements, specification and connectivity options for the LP C Software System. This manual does not provide instructions for the installation or upgrade of hardware. Disclaimers This manual is not a substitute for the detailed operator training provided by Leica, or for other advanced instruction. A Leica representative should be contacted immediately for assistance in the event of any instrument malfunction. LP C Req. & Spec. Page 2 of 9 Version 1.1
Table of Contents LP C Software System Section 1 Introduction... 4 Section 2 Software System Components... 4 Label Printer Drivers... 4 LabeLase Producer CL... 4 Section 3 System Requirements... 5 Section 4 LP C Interface Specifications... 5 Standard Message Format... 5 Preferred Message Format... 6 Connection Types... 6 InfoSight Extended Protocol... 7 LP C Req. & Spec. Page 3 of 9 Version 1.1
Section 1 Introduction TheLabeLase software system allows a laboratory to utilize bar code technology for positive identification and tracking of specimens in the laboratory. The use of bar code technology results in less errors, greatly enhanced workflow efficiencies, and laboratory technicians that spend less time worrying about specimen identification errors and more time on diagnostics, results and patient care. TheLabeLase software system may be implemented as a stand-alone system or integrated with an information system. Section 2 Software System Components Label Printer Drivers Leica provides the drivers and settings for the label printers that can be installed on supported Microsoft Windows operating systems. The drivers may be installed on the computer system connected to the device directly or a server if utilizing a network connection. LabeLase Producer CL LabeLase Producer CL is the end user interface that allows the computer system to communicate to the attached laser cassette marker. LabeLase Producer CL provides a user access to the LP C print queue, status and settings. Its use in a laboratory will depend on the level of integration. Users have the option of entering data for printing into LabeLase Producer CL or if interfaced into the Lab Information System or other application, LabeLase Producer CL can be minimized or run in the background. This software must be running to allow the LP C to print. LP C Req. & Spec. Page 4 of 9 Version 1.1
Section 3 System Requirements LabeLase Producer CL Requirements Processor Pentium 400MHz or higher Memory 128 megabyte (MB) RAM or higher Hard Disk 50 megabyte (MB) Display 800x600 or higher resolution monitor Operating System Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista or later operating system Network 100 megabits per second (Mbps) TCP/IP connection or higher to the same subnet the printer will be installed on. (required if marker will not use a serial connection) Ports An available DB9 serial or USB port (required if the LP C will not be on a network) Section 4 LP C Interface Specifications Standard Message Format The Standard Message Format consists of several fields of information, each separated from the others by a separator character (or sequence of characters) specified in the Data Field Separator of the LabeLase Host Communications form. Each set of records within the message needs to be terminated by carriage return (CR) and line feed (LF) characters. A sample message format with is defined below using the comma character as the separator: <FILENAME>,<QUANTITY>,<COPIES>,<SERIALNO>,<VMAGID>,<EXITBIN>,<FIELD1>,<FIELD2>,...<FIELDN>[cr][lf] Field Name Description Required Default Example Layout Filename Name of the file that contains the layout to be printed. This may optionally include the entire path. The Producer software will load this file prior to printing. This allows the lab software to dynamically change the layout of the data on the cassette. No N/A C:\Program Files\GDC\Template\Sample.itl Quantity Defined the number of cassettes to print. No 1 3 Copies Reserved, no value should be sent. No 1 N/A SerialNo Reserved, no value should be sent No N/A N/A VMAGID Three digit numeric value which represents the cassette color 12 marker only None 101 Exit Bin ID Bin where printed cassette is printed. Maybe be defined as 1, 2, 3 or any or * (do not include the double quote marks.) 12 marker only None Any Data Field < > Data fields from an application to be printed and/or encoded in the barcode. Yes None S09-26743 Table 1 - Message Fields Defined LP C Req. & Spec. Page 5 of 9 Version 1.1
Preferred Message Format Leica prefers that the following message format is used using a comma as a delimiter. <FILENAME>,<QUANTITY>,<VMAGID><EXITBIN>,<FIELD1>,<FIELD2>,...<FIELDN>[cr][lf] This allows the greatest flexibility in allowing the system to use a single or twelve laser cassette marker. When printing to a single laser cassette marker (LP C) and using this format send any 3 digit number (101 for example) as the VMAGID. Below is an example of five records coming over using this message format: C:\Program Files\LPC\Template\Sample.itl,1,101,any,S11-1234,A,1[cr][lf] C:\Program Files\LPC\Template\Sample.itl,1,101,any,S11-1234,A,2[cr][lf] C:\Program Files\LPC\Template\Sample.itl,1,101,any,S11-1234,B,1[cr][lf] C:\Program Files\LPC\Template\Sample.itl,1,101,any,S11-1235,A,1[cr][lf] C:\Program Files\LPC\Template\Sample.itl,1,101,any,S11-1236,A,1[cr][lf] Connection Types Below is an overview of the available connection types. RS232-C Serial COM Port The message is captured via a serial port connected to the computer system running the LabeLase Producer CL software. Network TCP/IP The message is sent to a user defined TCP/IP port on the IP address of the computer system running the LabeLase Producer CL software. File Transfer The message is written to an ASCII text file and placed in a folder that is configured in the LabeLase software. The extension and location of the file are configurable. LP C Req. & Spec. Page 6 of 9 Version 1.1
InfoSight Extended Protocol The InfoSight Extended protocol allows bidirectional communication between an information system and the LabeLase software utilizing any of the connection types described above. The information system acts as the master in the master-slave relationship. The LabeLase Producer CL will not send any messages to the master unless it is requested. Details for utilizing this protocol are below. Protocol Parameters Communications is established via an RS232 serial connection with the following parameters: Communications Parameters Baud Rate Selectable 1200 19200 Data Bits 8 Parity None Start Bits 1 Stop Bits 1 Three Wire RX, TX and GND Software handshaking (XON/XOFF) is implemented in some types of marking systems to control the flow of information. Hardware handshaking (DTR/DSR) is not implemented. Communications with the marking system controller is accomplished via a Master / Slave arrangement with the Host being the Master and the marker being the slave. The slave will only transmit in response to a message from the master. Note: All transmissions are in standard ASCII utilizing the following control characters: Control Character Definitions Character Definition Hex Decimal SOH Start of Header 0x01 1 STX Start of Text 0x02 2 ETX End of Text 0x03 3 CR Carriage Return 0x0D 13 ACK Acknowledge 0x06 6 NAK Negative ACK 0x15 21 XOFF Transmit Off 0x13 19 XON Transmit On 0x11 17 Master Data Format SOH TYPE STX [DATA TEXT] ETX [BCC] CR Where, TYPE - A single printable ASCII character that defines the meaning and the contents of the message [DATA TEXT] field. Message types may be custom defined for certain applications as required. Standard message types are defined later. [DATA TEXT] - An optional field which contains the actual data of the transmission. Some message types require no data since the "message" is conveyed by the TYPE character. LP C Req. & Spec. Page 7 of 9 Version 1.1
BCC - This is an optional field used to improve link reliability by providing fault detection. The BCC is computed by taking an eight bit addition of the TYPE and DATA TEXT characters and transmitting them as a three digit ASCII decimal number in the range 000 to 255. Refer to the example BCC computation later in this document. Slave Data Format (response) The slave will respond to the master's transmission in one of two ways depending on whether errors were detected or not. SOH TYPE ACK STX [DATA TEXT] ETX BCC CR or SOH TYPE NAK STX [DATA TEXT] ETX BCC CR If no errors were detected in the reception of the packet, then the first response will be sent back to the master. If any errors were detected (e.g. Parity, Framing, Overrun, BCC, Format, etc.) then the second (NAK) message will be sent. Note that the ACK message does not necessarily imply that the DATA TEXT field itself is correctly presented, just that no communications errors occurred. The TYPE character will always be the same as the received TYPE. The DATA TEXT field is optional and depends on the message TYPE. The BCC field will always be present in the response. Retries If the host does not receive a response from the I-Dent within three seconds, or it receives a NAK response, it should retransmit the entire packet. If, after three retries (four tries total), the host has not received a response, the host should declare the link to be "down". Standard Message Types Certain message types which are common to most marking systems are briefly discussed below. For a complete description of the Extended Protocol message types for a particular marker, refer to the data sheet for that marker. 1 - The DATA TEXT is a message to be printed. The message text is stored in the buffer for the currently assigned buffer. The response message contains no data in the DATA TEXT field. A - The DATA TEXT is a number from 1 to 10 specifying the buffer number to Assign for printing. The response message DATA TEXT field will contain an ASCII '1' if the assignment number is valid, or '0' if it is invalid. S - This type is used to query the marker for its current status. There is no DATA TEXT field for this type. The ACK response message from the marker will contain a DATA TEXT field. This field will contain one or more numbers separated by commas where each number is made up of four ASCII digits representing a decimal value. The binary equivalent value of this number has a bit pattern representing the status of the marker and is dependent upon the specific marker and application. Example BCC Computation The following example is a typical transmission including the BCC. LP C Req. & Spec. Page 8 of 9 Version 1.1
To download the character string 'ABC123' to the currently assigned message buffer, send the following message. SOH 1 STX ABC123 ETX 141 CR where '1' is the message TYPE and 141 is the BCC. The BCC is computed as follows (note all math shown in hexadecimal): 1) BCC = Message TYPE character + DATA TEXT characters. 031H 1 - Message Type 041H A \ 042H B 043H C message Text 031H 1 032H 2 + 033H 3 / 18DH 2) We are only interested in the lower eight bits of the sum, so we discard the first digit and keep the lower two. This results in a BCC of 8DH. Note that when performing the summation in an eight bit variable (e.g. unsigned char in 'C') that the most significant bits are automatically truncated. If the master's programming language is incapable of doing eight bit addition, then the same result can be obtained by taking the MODULO 256 operation on a sixteen bit sum. The MODULO operation is division where the Remainder is kept and the Quotient is discarded. 3) Once the BCC value is obtained, it must be placed into the message packet after the ETX character. The BCC must be transmitted in its decimal ASCII form. The decimal equivalent of the hexadecimal value 8DH is 141 decimal. Converting the value 141 into three ASCII characters yields 031H, 034H and 031H. These three characters become the transmitted BCC. The actual data transmitted (in hex) by the host for this message is: 001H 031H 002H 041H 042H 043H 031H 032H 033H 003H 031H 034H 031H 00DH 4) If the marker receives the message correctly, it will respond with the following message: 001H 031H 006H 002H 003H 030H 034H 039H 00DH which equates to the following ASCII message: SOH 1 ACK STX ETX 049 CR Note that if the marker detected an error in receiving the message from the host it would respond with a NAK (015H) character in place of the ACK. The BCC would be unaffected by this since the ACK/NAK is not included in the BCC computation. LP C Req. & Spec. Page 9 of 9 Version 1.1